Internationale Konferenz religiöser Führer in Seoul vom 18.-22. Februar 2018

Bei der Vollversammlung

International Leadership 

Conference (ILC), 

February 18 – 22, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea, held by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF)

International delegates were invited from around the world including parliamentarians, government ministers, and other leading figures in religion, media, academia, civil society and government.

The theologian Drs. Ari von Buuren,
United Religions Initiative
(URI) Netherlands 

Teilnehmer-Empfang

held there this speech,
February 19, 2018

Ari von Buuren is also a member of the
Institute of Interreligious Studies / Interreligöse Arbeitsstelle (INTR°A)

My name is Ari van Buuren from the Netherlands. Until recently I was chair of URI-NL.

URI = United Religions Initiative.
So yoU aRe I ! - isn’t that wonderful? ...

Also I am retired head of the Interfaith Department of Spiritual Care at the UMC Utrecht.

For me the fight of Jacob with the Angel and his reconciliation with his brother Esau (Genesis 32) is basic and essential. I experienced this also often as hospital chaplain: 11 years in a psychiatric hospital and 14 years in a university medical centre. The biblical story of Jacob, the Angel and Esau centers in what Jacob says: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And some hours later he says to Esau: “To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”

This is full of beauty and blessing. It transcends hatred and war. It shows a new pattern of forgiveness and reconciliation.

I am a citizen of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, a very secularized society. But my country also is a multireligious and multicultural society with 1 million Muslim and 1 million Christian migrants – that means 2 million people on a total population of 17 million people.

In a methaphor: “As the water flows: the riverbed leads the flow, the flow changes the riverbed.”

Nevertheless we are still in danger of ethnic, religious or secular isolation by groups living in their own subcultures. How to facilitate as religious leaders breakthroughs?

Surprisingly our King Willem Alexander in his Christmas Speech 2017 on TV mentioned the world of the hospital exemplary. He emphasized that the only place where different people really meet each other now is the hospital. As former hospital chaplain I agree with my king.

I learned that we are not hosting patients or refugees as our guests. No, we are guests in their lives. Yes, we are guests in each other’s lives. We are interdependent. As Jacob we can see the face of God in the face of the other.

As religious leaders ever and ever again we should transmit this godly message! We are the midwives and bridgebuilders for this turning! Celebrating the blessing of meeting each other is the essence.

Jesus speaks about a ‘crusade’ and Mohammed speaks about a ‘jihad’. They don’t mean war and victory, but in the first place they mean the struggle against the power of the ego.

So let us seize the opportunity to find our way out of the cocoon of woundings. Let us find new ways to healing and wonderment. Let us leave deadly passions in favor of the amazing grace of godly compassion. Compassion is the common Golden Rule!

Every religion and tradition has its own qualities. I experienced that religions are complementary.
For instance, Jesus learns the power of love, Buddha learns the wisdom of love.

So keywords for blessing are: interaction, exchange, cross-fertilization.

Yes: yoU aRe I….

CC